Projekt-26
Encyclopedia
Projekt-26, best known as P-26, was a stay-behind
army
in Switzerland
charged with countering a possible invasion of the country. The existence of P-26 (along with P-27
) as secret intelligence agencies dissimulated in the military intelligence agency (UNA) was revealed in November 1990 by the PUK EMD Parliamentary Commission headed by senator Carlo Schmid
. The commission, whose initial aim was to investigate the alleged presence of secret files on citizens constituted in the Swiss Ministry of Defence, was created in March 1990 in the wake of the Fichenaffäre or Secret Files Scandal, during which it had been discovered that the federal police, BUPO, had maintained files on 900,000 persons (out of a population of 7 million).
Since the existence of P-26 was revealed a month after similar revelations made in Italy by the premier Giulio Andreotti
, who disclosed to the Italian Parliament the existence, throughout the Cold War
, of a Gladio stay-behind
anti-communist paramilitary
network headed by NATO and present in most European countries, Switzerland formed a parliamentary commission charged of investigating alleged links between P-26 and similar stay-behind organizations. It was one of the three countries, along with Belgium and Italy
, to create a parliamentary commission on these stay-behind armies.
Swiss authorities declared on November 21, 1990 the dissolving of P-26, since the clandestine organization operated outside of parliamentary and even governmental control, being an autonomous structure hidden inside the secret military services
.
during World War II
, which led to the creation of the Home Guard and of stay-behind Auxiliary Units
, Switzerland also prepared for such an eventuality, as its neutrality
by itself did not constitute a sufficient guarantee against a military offensive of Nazi Germany
or Fascist Italy
. Thus, General Henri Guisan
put in place the "Reduit
Concept," according to which the best strategy for the military
was to retreat in the highest parts of the Alps
and abandon the plains to the enemy. From there, a guerrilla warfare would be launched against the invader.
, plans were made to prepare for an invasion by the Soviet Union
. The PUK EMD Commission headed by Carlo Schmid
discovered that a first stay-behind branch was created within the Swiss army in the Territorialdienst (Territorial Service). This military branch was considered best suited for this mission, as it was not trained to fight in the front but to carry out domestic police
operations among the civilian population. However, the PUK EMD Commission was confronted by the destruction of many documents pertaining to these early stay-behind organisations:
The first commander of this secret unit was Divisionär Franz Wey (1896–1963), who was succeeded by Burger, Amstutz and de Pury. The latter was promoted to Brigadier-General and Chief of the Territorial Service.
In December 1956, following the Suez Crisis
and the crushing of the Budapest insurrection, Erwin Jaeckle asked in Parliament what "preparations can be taken in the fields of organisation and training in order to take up and secure total popular resistance, if necessary also outside the framework of the army." A year later, in September 1957, Defence Minister Paul Chaudet
, successor to Karl Kobelt
(both members of the liberal FDP), replied that "The events in Hungary — seen from a military perspective only — have shown that the battle of a resistance movement alone can not be successful." He added that "This battle poses problems of a political and military nature, as well as juridical concerns in the context of international law
and the conventions that we have signed." Finally, Claudet declared that "Although certain measures have been envisaged by the Territorial Service in this area, the possibilities in this field are limited."
Swiss Major Hans von Dach
published in 1958 Der totale Widerstand, Kleinkriegsanleitung für jedermann ("Total Resistance," Bienne, 1958) concerning guerrilla warfare, a book of 180 pages about passive and active resistance to a foreign invasion, including detailed instructions on sabotage, clandestinity, methods to dissimulate weapons, struggle against police moles, etc.
A former, unnamed, Chief of Staff, declared in 1990 to the Swiss deputies that senior officers of the Swiss military, then led by Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollion, had taken Jaeckle's declined request as the legal basis for the organization of the stay-behind
In 1973, the Swiss Federal Council
formulated the national security
strategy of the country, which included the need for resistance in occupied territory. It reported that "The occupation of the country must not mean that all resistance has ended. Even in this case, an enemy shall meet not only with aversion, but also active resistance." It also highlighted that "Guerrilla war and non-violent resistance in occupied areas are being prepared within the limits of international law, and will, if necessary, be carried out". In a similar manner, the introduction of Der Totale Widerstand (Total Resistance) by Hans von Dach
(1958) stated that "of course," the guerrilla methods (which involved various covert actions
) were to respect the Hague Conventions on Laws and Customs of War on Land
(1899) as well as the four Geneva Conventions
of 1949.
At the time, Colonel Herbert Alboth commanded the stay-behind. He was replaced in 1976 by Colonel Albert Bachmann
. The next year, Hans Senn
became Chief of Staff of the Swiss armed forces, and reported on 5 September 1979 to the united seven Swiss Federal councilors on the activities of UNA and of the stay-behind units. He informed them that the stay-behind cost one million Swiss Francs a year, which were secretly invested. The councilors listened in silence, and their absence of objection was interpreted by Hans Senn as an implicit approval of the operation, in which they conserved the possibility of plausible denial
.
The UNA was discovered in the midst of the Bachmann-Schilling affair in November 1979, when Special Service commander Albert Bachmann sent UNA agent Kurt Schilling to Austria
to observe military manoeuvres. There, he was arrested and sentenced for espionage by Austrian authorities, before being sent back to Switzerland, and sentenced again for having revealed classified information. A parliamentary commission was formed to investigate UNA, and reported in 1981:
The report concluded that the task was legitimate, although "the internal control of these two services was insufficient."
gave his approval to Chief of Staff Hans Senn
and UNA director Richard Ochsner. Bachmann was replaced by Colonel Efrem Cattelan, who headed the paramilitary organization starting in October 1979. The code-name alluded to paragraph 426 of the Security and Defence concept of the Federal Council of 27 June 1973, which stated the needs of "active resistance." (See above).
, on March 1, proposing to reveal all that he knew on the stay-behind. The press reported that Alboth had been "killed with his own military bayonet
" with "several stabs to the stomach," while "on the chest of the victim the medical examiners have found a set of characters which were written in felt pen
and puzzle the investigators." His death was never resolved, while the Swiss deputies discovered in his flat pictures of senior P-26 members, old documents on training and courses, exercise plans of a conspiratorial character and address list of former members of the "Special Service."
The Cornu Report stated that P-26 was without "political or legal legitimacy", and described the group's collaboration with British secret services as "intense":
According to the account of the report from Richard Norton-Taylor
, from The Guardian
, "The activities of P-26, its codes, and the name of the leader of the group, Efrem Cattelan, were known to British intelligence, but the Swiss government was kept in the dark."
Despite a parliamentary motion deposed by MP Josef Lang, which requested the full, non-censored
, publication of the Cornu Report, large sections of the latter remained classified and will remain so for the next thirty years. Since Gladio stay-behind organizations were coordinated by secret organizations of SHAPE
and ultimately responded to SACEUR, head of NATO in Europe, any relationship between P-26 and SACEUR would be an obvious breach of Swiss neutrality
. Thus, the matter remains controversial and confidential. A 17-page summary, titled "P-26 not part of an international network," was published on 19 September 1991.
Confronted by a question from Socialist
deputy Paul Rechsteiner on 30 September 1991, concerning the non-publication of the Cornu Report, Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger
declared that:
To that, Socialist MP Susanne Leutenegger-Oberholzer replied: "is the Council not of the opinion that it is deplorable if foreign secret services receive more information than, for instance, Swiss parliamentarians?"
by Daniele Ganser, "P26 was not directly involved in the network of NATO's secret armies but it had close contact to MI6," the British secret service which worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency
during the Cold War and trained Gladio paramilitaries in Italy.
While responding to a question in Parliament concerning the assassination of Herbert Alboth (related to the discovery of P-26), National counsellor Remo Gysin has described the relations between the Swiss stay-behind, MI6 and NATO as "notorious".
Like other stay-behind organizations in Europe, P-26 had weapons caches in Switzerland, while some of its members took paramilitary and guerrilla warfare
training courses with the MI6 in Great Britain. Foreign instructors also followed courses in Switzerland with P-26.
Swiss military instructor Alois Hürlimann revealed that he had taken part in secret military training in England, which he said included a real assault on an Irish Republican Army
(IRA) arms depot, in which at least one IRA terrorist was killed.
In 1976, Colonel Bachmann, head of the Special Service, allegedly reached a mutual cooperation agreement with the British SAS
.
British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe from 1951 to 1958, was in the Bernese Oberland
each February from 1946 to 1962, for military affairs. He met in 1946 Swiss Defence Minister Karl Kobelt
, Foreign Minister Max Petitpierre
and Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollin to discuss Swiss neutrality and strategy in the post-war period. According to researches by Swiss historian Mauro Mantovani, Montgomery met again Montmollin in February 1952 to discuss plans in case of a Soviet invasion. They agreed that in case of an emergency, Switzerland would need help from NATO, leading Mantovani to conclude that:
Italian magistrate Felice Casson
, who first discovered Gladio in Italy
, declared: "I am sure that I also saw documents on Gladio contacts with Switzerland" in the Palazzo Braschi
in Rome, headquarters of the SISMI
military intelligence agency.
Furthermore, P-26 used Harpoon radios, a powerful encrypted communication system, which was used by the Belgian stay-behind network
as discovered by the Belgian Parliamentary Commission. The Harpoon system, bought by NATO from the German firm AEG Telefunken in the beginning of the 1980s, permitted stay-behind members to send encrypted radio messages across 6.000 km, thus enabling them to maintain relations between themselves. This system is not compatible with the standard communication system used by the Swiss army. However, magistrate Pierre Cornu found that in 1987, P-26 had connected foreign stations of the Harpoon system for around 15 million Swiss francs. Historian Daniele Ganser observed that:
On 13 March 1991, Socialist MP Esther Bührer asked in a parliamentary request to the Federal Council if members of P-26 had been involved in the "Kaiseraugst
" sabotage operations, which had occurred in 1975 during anti-nuclear
protests against the establishment of a nuclear plant in Kaiseraugst, near Basel
. Between 1974 and 1984, more than 30 sabotage operations had been carried out there, and investigations were abandoned without results, although they pointed that they had been "professional" operations. Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger
denied any involvement. The left-wing weekly Wochenzeitung also declared the request unlikely, as some violent anti-nuclear protesters had allegedly taken credit for the sabotage operations.
Former MP Helmut Hubacher, president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
from 1975 to 1990, declared that the existence of P-26 was more disturbing than what professional soldiers alleged it was, since it was not only to counter a possible Soviet invasion, but also had a mandate to become active should the left win the elections and gain parliamentary majority.
from The Guardian
...
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
charged with countering a possible invasion of the country. The existence of P-26 (along with P-27
Projekt-27
Projekt 27, usually referred to as P-27, was a secret intelligence gathering unit of the Swiss Army between 1981 and 1990. It was located within the Swiss military intelligence service UNA and tasked with the 'gathering of intelligence under unusual and dangerous conditions'...
) as secret intelligence agencies dissimulated in the military intelligence agency (UNA) was revealed in November 1990 by the PUK EMD Parliamentary Commission headed by senator Carlo Schmid
Carlo Schmid (Swiss politician)
Carlo Schmid-Sutter is a Swiss politician. Since 1984, he has been member of the cantonal government of Appenzell Innerrhoden....
. The commission, whose initial aim was to investigate the alleged presence of secret files on citizens constituted in the Swiss Ministry of Defence, was created in March 1990 in the wake of the Fichenaffäre or Secret Files Scandal, during which it had been discovered that the federal police, BUPO, had maintained files on 900,000 persons (out of a population of 7 million).
Since the existence of P-26 was revealed a month after similar revelations made in Italy by the premier Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
, who disclosed to the Italian Parliament the existence, throughout the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, of a Gladio stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
anti-communist paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
network headed by NATO and present in most European countries, Switzerland formed a parliamentary commission charged of investigating alleged links between P-26 and similar stay-behind organizations. It was one of the three countries, along with Belgium and Italy
Gladio in Italy
While "stay-behind" anti-communist networks existed in all NATO countries, the Italian branch of Operation Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense Paolo Taviani's supervision...
, to create a parliamentary commission on these stay-behind armies.
Swiss authorities declared on November 21, 1990 the dissolving of P-26, since the clandestine organization operated outside of parliamentary and even governmental control, being an autonomous structure hidden inside the secret military services
Swiss intelligence agencies
The Swiss intelligence community is a group of agencies with responsibilities to protect the interests and infrastructure of Switzerland-New service:...
.
Stay-behind plans during World War II
As the United Kingdom, which had prepared itself for a Nazi invasionBritish anti-invasion preparations of World War II
British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, which led to the creation of the Home Guard and of stay-behind Auxiliary Units
Auxiliary Units
The Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained, highly secret units created by the United Kingdom government during the Second World War, with the aim of resisting the expected occupation of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany, after a planned invasion codenamed Operation Sea Lion...
, Switzerland also prepared for such an eventuality, as its neutrality
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
by itself did not constitute a sufficient guarantee against a military offensive of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
or Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
. Thus, General Henri Guisan
Henri Guisan
Henri Guisan was a Swiss army officer, and held the office of the General of the Swiss Army during World War II. He was the fourth and the most recent man to be appointed to the rarely used Swiss rank of General, and was possibly Switzerland's most famous soldier...
put in place the "Reduit
Reduit
A reduit is a fortified structure such as a citadel or a keep into which the defending troops can retreat when the outer defences are breached...
Concept," according to which the best strategy for the military
Military of Switzerland
The Swiss Armed Forces perform the roles of Switzerland's militia and regular army. Under the country's militia system, professional soldiers constitute about 5 percent of military personnel; the rest are male citizen conscripts 19 to 34 years old...
was to retreat in the highest parts of the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
and abandon the plains to the enemy. From there, a guerrilla warfare would be launched against the invader.
Stay-behind in the Territorial Service
With the end of World War II and the official beginning of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, plans were made to prepare for an invasion by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The PUK EMD Commission headed by Carlo Schmid
Carlo Schmid (Swiss politician)
Carlo Schmid-Sutter is a Swiss politician. Since 1984, he has been member of the cantonal government of Appenzell Innerrhoden....
discovered that a first stay-behind branch was created within the Swiss army in the Territorialdienst (Territorial Service). This military branch was considered best suited for this mission, as it was not trained to fight in the front but to carry out domestic police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
operations among the civilian population. However, the PUK EMD Commission was confronted by the destruction of many documents pertaining to these early stay-behind organisations:
"The historical record is fragmentary, because almost all documents of the resistance organization of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were destroyed around 1980."
The first commander of this secret unit was Divisionär Franz Wey (1896–1963), who was succeeded by Burger, Amstutz and de Pury. The latter was promoted to Brigadier-General and Chief of the Territorial Service.
In December 1956, following the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
and the crushing of the Budapest insurrection, Erwin Jaeckle asked in Parliament what "preparations can be taken in the fields of organisation and training in order to take up and secure total popular resistance, if necessary also outside the framework of the army." A year later, in September 1957, Defence Minister Paul Chaudet
Paul Chaudet
Paul Chaudet was a Swiss politician.He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on December 16, 1954 and handed over office on December 31, 1966. He resigned on November 28, 1966 due to the Mirage-affair. He was affiliated to the Radical Party...
, successor to Karl Kobelt
Karl Kobelt
Karl Kobelt was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council.He was elected to the Federal Council on December 10, 1940 and handed over office on December 31, 1954...
(both members of the liberal FDP), replied that "The events in Hungary — seen from a military perspective only — have shown that the battle of a resistance movement alone can not be successful." He added that "This battle poses problems of a political and military nature, as well as juridical concerns in the context of international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and the conventions that we have signed." Finally, Claudet declared that "Although certain measures have been envisaged by the Territorial Service in this area, the possibilities in this field are limited."
Swiss Major Hans von Dach
Hans von Dach
Swiss Army major Hans von Dach is the author of several army manuals, including the seminal stay-behind warfare book Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung für Jedermann , which first appeared 1957...
published in 1958 Der totale Widerstand, Kleinkriegsanleitung für jedermann ("Total Resistance," Bienne, 1958) concerning guerrilla warfare, a book of 180 pages about passive and active resistance to a foreign invasion, including detailed instructions on sabotage, clandestinity, methods to dissimulate weapons, struggle against police moles, etc.
A former, unnamed, Chief of Staff, declared in 1990 to the Swiss deputies that senior officers of the Swiss military, then led by Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollion, had taken Jaeckle's declined request as the legal basis for the organization of the stay-behind
Stay-behind in the UNA
The stay-behind army was moved in 1967 from the Territorial Service to the UNA, the military intelligence agency, directed by Divisionär Richard Ochsner. It changed its codename to "Special Service," which was made up of three hierarchical levels. The top level consisted of members of the regular military. The second level was made up of "trusted persons" who recruited activists. These formed the third level. According to the PUK EMD Commission:"The persons recruited by the trusted men could themselves recruit a number of new members to join the resistance organisation; therefore, the exact number of members of the organisation is not known... They are said to have been 1.000 at maximum, divided among 30 to 50 centres."
In 1973, the Swiss Federal Council
Swiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....
formulated the national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
strategy of the country, which included the need for resistance in occupied territory. It reported that "The occupation of the country must not mean that all resistance has ended. Even in this case, an enemy shall meet not only with aversion, but also active resistance." It also highlighted that "Guerrilla war and non-violent resistance in occupied areas are being prepared within the limits of international law, and will, if necessary, be carried out". In a similar manner, the introduction of Der Totale Widerstand (Total Resistance) by Hans von Dach
Hans von Dach
Swiss Army major Hans von Dach is the author of several army manuals, including the seminal stay-behind warfare book Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung für Jedermann , which first appeared 1957...
(1958) stated that "of course," the guerrilla methods (which involved various covert actions
Covert operation
A covert operation is a military, intelligence or law enforcement operation that is carried clandestinely and, often, outside of official channels. Covert operations aim to fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation...
) were to respect the Hague Conventions on Laws and Customs of War on Land
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...
(1899) as well as the four Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
of 1949.
At the time, Colonel Herbert Alboth commanded the stay-behind. He was replaced in 1976 by Colonel Albert Bachmann
Albert Bachmann
Albert "Bert" Bachmann was a Swiss military intelligence officer.Bachmann worked as a printer after leaving school. As a young man he flirted with communism, joining the youth wing of the PdA. Following the 1948 Communist seizure of power in Czechslovakia, he changed course and became strongly...
. The next year, Hans Senn
Hans Senn
Hans Senn was a general officer of the Swiss Army.Senn was born in Zofingen and, as a young officer, studied at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris. As Army head of operations he unsuccessfully advocated a policy of nuclear armament as a deterrent against the Warsaw Pact in the 1960s...
became Chief of Staff of the Swiss armed forces, and reported on 5 September 1979 to the united seven Swiss Federal councilors on the activities of UNA and of the stay-behind units. He informed them that the stay-behind cost one million Swiss Francs a year, which were secretly invested. The councilors listened in silence, and their absence of objection was interpreted by Hans Senn as an implicit approval of the operation, in which they conserved the possibility of plausible denial
Plausible Denial
Plausible Denial is the title of a book by American lawyer, Mark Lane that chronicles his legal defense of Victor Marchetti, a former-CIA agent who wrote an article for The Spotlight about the JFK assassination and was sued for defamation by E...
.
The UNA was discovered in the midst of the Bachmann-Schilling affair in November 1979, when Special Service commander Albert Bachmann sent UNA agent Kurt Schilling to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
to observe military manoeuvres. There, he was arrested and sentenced for espionage by Austrian authorities, before being sent back to Switzerland, and sentenced again for having revealed classified information. A parliamentary commission was formed to investigate UNA, and reported in 1981:
"According to the security policy of the federation, the Special Service has the task of creating favourable conditions for active resistance in Switzerland against an occupying force."
The report concluded that the task was legitimate, although "the internal control of these two services was insufficient."
Stay-behind as P-26
Following this event, which led to the resignation of Colonel Bachmann, the stay-behind was recreated, under the code-name P-26. Defence Minister Georges-André ChevallazGeorges-André Chevallaz
Georges-André Chevallaz was a Swiss historian, politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council ....
gave his approval to Chief of Staff Hans Senn
Hans Senn
Hans Senn was a general officer of the Swiss Army.Senn was born in Zofingen and, as a young officer, studied at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris. As Army head of operations he unsuccessfully advocated a policy of nuclear armament as a deterrent against the Warsaw Pact in the 1960s...
and UNA director Richard Ochsner. Bachmann was replaced by Colonel Efrem Cattelan, who headed the paramilitary organization starting in October 1979. The code-name alluded to paragraph 426 of the Security and Defence concept of the Federal Council of 27 June 1973, which stated the needs of "active resistance." (See above).
Assassination of Herbert Alboth
During the investigations concerning the secret files scandal and P-26, Herbert Alboth, leader of the P-26's predecessor organisation Spezialdienst (special service) until 1976, was assassinated on April 18, 1990, in his flat in Liebefeld near Bern. A short time before, he had written to the MP Kaspar VilligerKaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger is a Swiss businessman, politician and former member of the Swiss Federal Council . He currently heads Swiss bank UBS.-Political career:On February 1, 1989, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council...
, on March 1, proposing to reveal all that he knew on the stay-behind. The press reported that Alboth had been "killed with his own military bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
" with "several stabs to the stomach," while "on the chest of the victim the medical examiners have found a set of characters which were written in felt pen
Marker pen
thumb|MarkerA marker pen, marking pen, felt-tip pen, flow or marker, is a pen which has its own ink-source, and usually a tip made of a porous, pressed fibres; such as felt or nylon.-Permanent marker:...
and puzzle the investigators." His death was never resolved, while the Swiss deputies discovered in his flat pictures of senior P-26 members, old documents on training and courses, exercise plans of a conspiratorial character and address list of former members of the "Special Service."
The Cornu Report
Following the November 1990 report by the Parliamentary Commission, the Swiss Socialist Party and the Greens requested further investigations concerning alleged ties between P-26 and other Gladio stay-behind organizations. Judge Pierre Cornu was charged with the investigation, and delivered a 100 page report known as the "Cornu Report." He met Italian and Belgian MPs, as well as P-26 members, but London declined to comment (the existence of MI6 was still un-confirmed by Britain).The Cornu Report stated that P-26 was without "political or legal legitimacy", and described the group's collaboration with British secret services as "intense":
"Unknown to the Swiss government, British officials signed agreements with the organisation, called P26, to provide training in combat, communications, and sabotage. The latest agreement was signed in 1987… P26 cadres participated regularly in training exercises in Britain… British advisers — possibly from the SASSpecial Air ServiceSpecial Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
— visited secret training establishments in Switzerland."
According to the account of the report from Richard Norton-Taylor
Richard Norton-Taylor
Richard Norton-Taylor is a British editor, journalist and playwright.He is a security-affairs editor of the British newspaper The Guardian.-Early life and education:...
, from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, "The activities of P-26, its codes, and the name of the leader of the group, Efrem Cattelan, were known to British intelligence, but the Swiss government was kept in the dark."
Despite a parliamentary motion deposed by MP Josef Lang, which requested the full, non-censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, publication of the Cornu Report, large sections of the latter remained classified and will remain so for the next thirty years. Since Gladio stay-behind organizations were coordinated by secret organizations of SHAPE
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is the central command of NATO military forces. It is located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons...
and ultimately responded to SACEUR, head of NATO in Europe, any relationship between P-26 and SACEUR would be an obvious breach of Swiss neutrality
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
. Thus, the matter remains controversial and confidential. A 17-page summary, titled "P-26 not part of an international network," was published on 19 September 1991.
Confronted by a question from Socialist
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
deputy Paul Rechsteiner on 30 September 1991, concerning the non-publication of the Cornu Report, Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger is a Swiss businessman, politician and former member of the Swiss Federal Council . He currently heads Swiss bank UBS.-Political career:On February 1, 1989, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council...
declared that:
"The Cornu Report contains numerous pieces of information on foreign secret services and resistance organisations, as well as their structures, hierarchies, and connections... The Cornu Report will not be released and published because it is not the business of the Federal Council to reveal the secret affairs of foreign states."
To that, Socialist MP Susanne Leutenegger-Oberholzer replied: "is the Council not of the opinion that it is deplorable if foreign secret services receive more information than, for instance, Swiss parliamentarians?"
Actions of the P-26 and alleged international contacts
However, according to an ETH universitary studyETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
by Daniele Ganser, "P26 was not directly involved in the network of NATO's secret armies but it had close contact to MI6," the British secret service which worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
during the Cold War and trained Gladio paramilitaries in Italy.
While responding to a question in Parliament concerning the assassination of Herbert Alboth (related to the discovery of P-26), National counsellor Remo Gysin has described the relations between the Swiss stay-behind, MI6 and NATO as "notorious".
Like other stay-behind organizations in Europe, P-26 had weapons caches in Switzerland, while some of its members took paramilitary and guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
training courses with the MI6 in Great Britain. Foreign instructors also followed courses in Switzerland with P-26.
Swiss military instructor Alois Hürlimann revealed that he had taken part in secret military training in England, which he said included a real assault on an Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(IRA) arms depot, in which at least one IRA terrorist was killed.
In 1976, Colonel Bachmann, head of the Special Service, allegedly reached a mutual cooperation agreement with the British SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
.
British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe from 1951 to 1958, was in the Bernese Oberland
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the southern end of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps .The flag of the Bernese Oberland consists of a black eagle in a gold field The Bernese Oberland (Bernese...
each February from 1946 to 1962, for military affairs. He met in 1946 Swiss Defence Minister Karl Kobelt
Karl Kobelt
Karl Kobelt was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council.He was elected to the Federal Council on December 10, 1940 and handed over office on December 31, 1954...
, Foreign Minister Max Petitpierre
Max Petitpierre
Max Petitpierre was a Swiss politician, jurist and member of the Swiss Federal Council, heading the Political Department ....
and Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollin to discuss Swiss neutrality and strategy in the post-war period. According to researches by Swiss historian Mauro Mantovani, Montgomery met again Montmollin in February 1952 to discuss plans in case of a Soviet invasion. They agreed that in case of an emergency, Switzerland would need help from NATO, leading Mantovani to conclude that:
"Switzerland during the Cold War was so obviously part of the western camp that western leaders could only wish that all neutrals would take Switzerland as an example.
Italian magistrate Felice Casson
Felice Casson
Felice Casson is an Italian magistrate and politician, who discovered the existence of Operation Gladio, a "stay-behind" NATO anti-communist army during the Cold War, while investigating an attack on three Carabinieri in 1972, for which two neo-fascists were convicted; the explosives used in the...
, who first discovered Gladio in Italy
Gladio in Italy
While "stay-behind" anti-communist networks existed in all NATO countries, the Italian branch of Operation Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense Paolo Taviani's supervision...
, declared: "I am sure that I also saw documents on Gladio contacts with Switzerland" in the Palazzo Braschi
Palazzo Braschi
Palazzo Braschi is a large Neoclassical palace in Rome, Italy and is located between the Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Piazza di Pasquino. It presently houses the Museo di Roma, the civic museum of Rome....
in Rome, headquarters of the SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
military intelligence agency.
Furthermore, P-26 used Harpoon radios, a powerful encrypted communication system, which was used by the Belgian stay-behind network
Belgian stay-behind network
The Belgian stay-behind network, colloquially called "Gladio" was a secret mixed civilian and military unit, trained to form a resistance movement in the event of a Soviet invasion and part of a network of similar organizations in NATO-countries...
as discovered by the Belgian Parliamentary Commission. The Harpoon system, bought by NATO from the German firm AEG Telefunken in the beginning of the 1980s, permitted stay-behind members to send encrypted radio messages across 6.000 km, thus enabling them to maintain relations between themselves. This system is not compatible with the standard communication system used by the Swiss army. However, magistrate Pierre Cornu found that in 1987, P-26 had connected foreign stations of the Harpoon system for around 15 million Swiss francs. Historian Daniele Ganser observed that:
"The purchase of the Harpoon equipment linked to NATO command centres in Brussels, the CIA in the US, and MI6 in Great Britain realised the integration of the Swiss stay-behind in the European stay-behind network at a very basic, hardware level."
On 13 March 1991, Socialist MP Esther Bührer asked in a parliamentary request to the Federal Council if members of P-26 had been involved in the "Kaiseraugst
Kaiseraugst
Kaiseraugst is a municipality in the district of Rheinfelden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is named for the Ancient Roman city of Augusta Raurica whose ruins are situated nearby...
" sabotage operations, which had occurred in 1975 during anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
protests against the establishment of a nuclear plant in Kaiseraugst, near Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
. Between 1974 and 1984, more than 30 sabotage operations had been carried out there, and investigations were abandoned without results, although they pointed that they had been "professional" operations. Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger
Kaspar Villiger is a Swiss businessman, politician and former member of the Swiss Federal Council . He currently heads Swiss bank UBS.-Political career:On February 1, 1989, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council...
denied any involvement. The left-wing weekly Wochenzeitung also declared the request unlikely, as some violent anti-nuclear protesters had allegedly taken credit for the sabotage operations.
Former MP Helmut Hubacher, president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
from 1975 to 1990, declared that the existence of P-26 was more disturbing than what professional soldiers alleged it was, since it was not only to counter a possible Soviet invasion, but also had a mandate to become active should the left win the elections and gain parliamentary majority.
P-27 Files
Beside P-26, the military intelligence agency also dissimulated P-27, charged with domestic surveillance. According to Richard Norton-TaylorRichard Norton-Taylor
Richard Norton-Taylor is a British editor, journalist and playwright.He is a security-affairs editor of the British newspaper The Guardian.-Early life and education:...
from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
...
"P26 was backed by P27, a private foreign intelligence agency funded partly by the government, and by a special unit of Swiss army intelligence which had built up files on nearly 8,000 "suspect persons" including "leftists", "bill stickers", "Jehovah's witnessesJehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
", people with "abnormal tendencies" and anti-nuclearAnti-nuclearThe anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
demonstrators.
On November 14, the Swiss government hurriedly dissolved P26 — the head of which, it emerged, had been paid £100,000 a year."